In general, an intenna for facilitating wireless transmission and reception is formed in a wireless communication device such as a mobile phone.
With respect to the wireless communication device such as a mobile phone, since the thickness of an external case, in which an intenna as well as built-in components is formed, has been continuously decreased for convenience of carry and miniaturization, the case is relatively vulnerable to an external impact, and thus, it is a major cause of damage.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop a material of the case and a manufacturing method which may easily form an intenna in addition to produce the case with a thin profile and minimize the damage from the external impact, and thus, cases of various materials and methods of manufacturing an intenna have been proposed.
However, a typical material of the case of the wireless communication device, such as a mobile phone, is mainly formed of a mixture of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer and polycarbonate resin, a polycarbonate resin, a mixture of ABS copolymer, polycarbonate resin, and glass fibers, or a mixture of polycarbonate and glass fibers in order to reinforce the strength of the case. Since plating is not smoothly performed on such a resin material, reliability of plating is not sufficiently obtained due to a decrease in plating adhesion of an intenna manufactured by a plating method. Thus, excessive defects and antenna performance degradation may occur.
Also, as can be seen in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0043328 (method of manufacturing an intenna having a uniform plating layer) filed on May 10, 2010 by the present applicant as a typical method of manufacturing an intenna, the thickness of a plating layer formed on a radiation pattern portion and an antenna contact portion may be uniformly formed without deviation by particularly detecting the amount and value of applied current in real time to interrupt electrical supply or to sound an alarm when the desired thickness of plating is obtained through the integration of plating time. However, plating adhesion is also not perfect, and productivity may not only be reduced because excessive working time is required to remove a metal plating layer which is coated on a non-radiation pattern portion excluding the radiation pattern portion and the antenna contact portion, but all reliability items required for mobile phone brands may also be difficult to be satisfied.